While book fairs and festivals in India are booming, events dedicated to children’s books are still few and far between.
The Neev Literature Festival that runs from September 27-29 will be bucking that trend.
The festival, hosted by Neev Academy, an International Baccalaureate school in Yemalur, Bengaluru, explains The Hindu,
pushes the boundaries by focussing not just on children, but also parents, teachers, librarians and educators, drawing them into a conversation about reading, writing, and everything book.
The goal, says Academy founder Kavita Gupta Sabharwal, is,
growing readers for life, and making reading part of every home.
To that end the Neev Festival will feature 67 speakers and workshop leaders from India and beyond, twice as many as last year, with a day set aside for teachers and librarians, offering advice on library curation and with the ambitious challenge of “unlearning gender stereotypes.”
The festival’s book award, worth 100,000 rupees ($1,375) will offer prizes in three categories -picture books, young readers and young adults. There were 94 entries and a shortlist of 22 books are up for the prize.
